French 625 B&W, and UK VHS
 

Hi All
Will a french 625 B&W set work with a UK Video VHS player ?
Thanks John

Re: French 625 B&W, and UK VHS
 

No - French 625 line is system ‘L’ which has positive vision modulation with sound spaced 6.5MHz while GB is system ‘I’ which has negative vision modulation with sound spaced 6MHz - so no picture & no sound - this assumes RF connection - if connect by AV/SCART all will work perfectly
Rgds
John

Re: French 625 B&W, and UK VHS
 

It will work with a composite video signal, as PAL and SECAM are compatible in monochrome, but a UK modulator in a VCR won't work with a French set even in mono as the transmission characteristics are different.

Re: French 625 B&W, and UK VHS
 

Many thanks to both for your advice. It's do-able then with direct injection :) The slight problem with France is that it's so big, and sets for sale are many kilometres distant !

Re: French 625 B&W, and UK VHS
 

I guess it could depend on the model of the French set. I have my late Brother-in-law's small colour TV that we brought back to the UK when we cleared his house in France a decade ago. It is a Schneider, probably around 20 years old, and is a tri-standard model: SECAM, European PAL and UK PAL, the standard being selectable when presetting channels. It was apparently just one he had bought from his local supermarket in Normandy. I am currently using it with a Ferguson digibox connected to its SCART socket.

Re: French 625 B&W, and UK VHS
 

Thanks emeritus :) I'd thought of an older 625 set, but will now keep an eye out for that useful tri-standard !

Re: French 625 B&W, and UK VHS
 

Another option: obtain a French VHS video recorder to go with the French TV.

A VCR from France will be able to play British tapes in black and white (and colour if both the VCR and TV are PAL/SECAM compatible). Quite a lot of French TVs and VCRs were dual standard PAL and SECAM from the 1980s onwards. Satellite TV and video games consoles created a demand for PAL compatible equipment in France.

It doesn't even matter if the French VCR can no longer play tapes. As long as it still switches on, you can use it as a modulator. Connect a British video source to the SCART or AV input of the French VCR, then connect an aerial lead from French VCR to French TV. You'll only get black-and-white pictures this way.

Alternatively you can obtain a French SECAM-L modulator and plug your British VCR into it. This will also only work in black and white.

A French TV equipped with RGB SCART socket will work straightaway with British RGB SCART devices such as DVD players and Freeview boxes. Just plug them in with a fully-wired SCART cable and you'll get colour too. Video cassette recorders do not provide RGB signals. In the past, you could buy devices called transcoders which could convert PAL to SECAM or RGB (or SECAM to PAL if you wanted to use a French video source with a British TV). There were also a few very expensive video recorders with standards converters built-in. Now this stuff is practically obsolete, you can sometimes get lucky and pick one up at a flea market for next to nothing.

Re: French 625 B&W, and UK VHS
 

Hi to all,
@JohnMarsh : PAL to SECAM transcoders were needed and became popular because many CamCorders (and all Sony 8mm stuff) were in PAL.

If you search on E-Bay or the French Le Bon Coin web site, they are a dime a dozen.
Interesting models are the Sony SFR-1000 (very compact, SCART I/O, wall-wart PSU) and the Canon TC-21SP (metal box with cables, inboard PSU)
Also many models by CGV (Compagnie Generale de VideoTechnique)
See my CGV data repository (spec sheets, schematics) here :

https://app.photobucket.com/u/jhalph...9-94e2bf65f433

A word about French SECAM VHS VCRs:
There were 2 ways to record SECAM.
The official JVC standard for models sold in metropolitan France was a simple divide by 4 of the SECAM FM subcarriers. All commercial cassettes with movies used this.
RF modulator output is SECAM L/625, UHF, Positive Video Mod, AM Audio, 6.5MHz spacing.

The other, non-official way was to use essentially a PAL machine with the appropriate tuner.
This was called ME-SECAM (ME for Middle East).
Many multistandard JVC VCRs can record/play this standard.
Colour definition is better with ME-SECAM than with divide by 4, BUT all French commercial tapes will play only in B&W on a genuine French SECAM machine.

Best Regards
jhalphen
Paris/France

Re: French 625 B&W, and UK VHS
 

Much food for thought there ! Thankyou to Hamid and JHalphen :)